Mr. Lu Xun once seemed to have said, "If you want to stir things up, do it in a field you know. Don't go somewhere unfamiliar and show off—you'll only make a fool of yourself instead..." Ahem.
As for the fields Li Xian knew well... he couldn't say he knew any of them particularly well.
He'd majored in marketing at university, and he hadn't been very good at it. After graduating, he'd worked for an education company for nearly two years, but his job had hardly anything to do with education.
So when it came to the broad field of marketing, he basically had no experience at all.
Of course, that didn't stop him from stirring things up, or from spending money.
Who cared whether he knew the business? Just get on with it. Thinking about all that other stuff was useless—and would only delay him from spending money.
It didn't matter whether he made or lost money. The important thing was to spend it and complete the task.
Naturally, he wanted to spend money on something he actually liked, such as eating, drinking, and having fun!
They'd spent the whole afternoon chatting in the group without coming up with any particularly useful suggestions, but they'd finally narrowed it down to a few options.
A barbecue restaurant, a bathhouse, a foot massage parlor, KTV, a bar, an esports café, a coffee shop, and so on.
It was already impressive that a bunch of amateurs had managed to narrow things down in one afternoon. After all, none of them had any real experience starting a business.
Most of the guys in the group had parents who worked in public service—as teachers, doctors, state-owned enterprise employees, or government officials. Wang Meng was one of the rare exceptions; his parents ran a small business, much like Li Xian's family.
The only one whose family was in business was Jiji, Sui Jiji. His family wholesaled seafood, but he rarely got involved in the family business and couldn't offer much advice.
Actually, Li Xian wasn't all that torn. He could just rule out a few troublesome options: bathhouses, foot massage parlors, KTV, and bars.
That left three choices: a barbecue restaurant, an esports café, or a coffee shop.
Those three would be relatively hassle-free. The other entertainment venues all involved one thing or another that couldn't be discussed openly, and he might end up getting shut down one day.
"Speak if you have something to say. Otherwise, court is adjourned!" Li Xian sent a message to the group.
A flood of mocking emojis instantly filled the screen. After a while, Wei Shao asked:
"How big of a project are we talking about? How much money are you planning to put in?" That was the key question. They'd been discussing it for ages, but Li Xian still hadn't said how much he was willing to invest. A hundred million was only a goal.
Li Xian: "A few tens of millions."
Wei Shao: "..."
Jiji: "Don't scare me. I'm a coward."
Brother Ma: "Whatever you say, man. I'm over here in America, so it's not like I can get involved anyway."
Master Jin: "I'll just quietly watch you show off~~~"
Fatty Ye: "Boss, sending red envelopes would be more convincing."
Mengzi: "I swear on a light bulb that Brother Xian isn't talking nonsense."
"What I'm saying is all true. A couple of days ago, Brother Xian picked me up in a Mercedes-Benz and took me out for barbecue."
"He ordered ten plates of kidneys. It cost five or six thousand yuan."
"Brother Xian is staying in the Presidential Suite at the Grand Hyatt Hotel now. You've all seen him posting pictures of the sea view these past couple of days."
"I'm not talking about stolen photos, either. Have any of you ever seen Brother Xian post so many things on Moments? Is he the type to show off for no reason? If he didn't have the money, would he be showing off like this?"
Mengzi took on five at once. Li Xian watched his phone with a grin, genuinely surprised that he didn't even have to explain things himself. Mengzi had shut them all up one by one.
After a while, the group quieted down. Li Xian sent one last message to wrap up their little conference for the day.
"Let's get barbecue tomorrow night. Anyone in Bin City better not make excuses."
Three ordinary men could outdo Zhuge Liang if they put their heads together. When it mattered, you had to band together. Going it alone had never been Li Xian's style. These guys might not seem very useful, but they were more than capable of running errands.
Sui Jiji was a local. Sun Wei, also known as Wei Shao, currently worked at Z-Link Recruitment, and Mengzi was dependable and hardworking. There—they had someone for external relations, someone for recruitment, and someone to help out.
Put everything to good use, and make the best of everyone's talents.
If you had people to help, but still ran around on your own like an idiot, that wasn't just a lack of intelligence. You'd have to have been hit in the head by a door.
The next morning.
Li Xian drove to the Taide Building.
That was where he worked. His company, Bainian Yucai, was on the eighth floor.
Bainian Yucai was a medium-sized education company. Its main services included helping students choose their college entrance exam preferences, applying for independent admissions, applying to universities in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, and advising art students on college applications.
Simply put, it was an education consultancy. It used a comprehensive smart-data platform for the college entrance exam system to help students and their parents deal with the headache of choosing a school.
Well... that was putting it too narrowly. Applying to colleges really was a skill. Every year, countless students missed out on their dream schools and majors by just a few points.
Bainian Yucai catered to those people, providing the help they needed.
Where there was demand, there was a market. The company combined flawless big-data analysis with brilliant teachers who could predict score cutoffs years in advance, helping students get into schools or majors with lower scores.
Didn't you need that kind of help? And if you could get into a school with a lower score, wouldn't you be willing to pay for it?
Nine thousand yuan for help filling out college preferences wasn't expensive at all. Comprehensive coaching for independent admissions, with a guarantee of passing the preliminary review, cost twenty thousand. Studying abroad or applying to universities in Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan... Ahem, that was only thirty thousand.
Of course, there were discounts during the off-season, sometimes as much as fifty percent. But in June, you could forget about getting that deal.
Li Xian worked at a company like this, diligently making sales calls in the telemarketing department. His main job was to promote the company's free seminars on college applications to the parents of students about to take the entrance exam.
He was paid by the number of people he signed up: fifty yuan per person, with bonuses settled weekly.
No need to go on about it. Everyone knew how seminars worked. In the age of big data, information was money.
The G-Wagon drew plenty of attention as it entered the parking lot. Li Xian, dressed head to toe in black Adidas, also became the center of attention. No one else dared to dress quite like him.
"Not bad. That chubby guy looks pretty stylish in all black."
"Black is slimming. He's pretty handsome to begin with, and his skin is so fair."
"I really want to ask what skincare products he uses..."
"Go ask him. He'll be gone in a minute..."
After getting off the elevator on the eighth floor, Li Xian had only taken a few steps when he heard a quiet discussion behind him.
They were talking about him. He could hear every word clearly.
After his looks had jumped straight to seventy and he'd gone through a complete transformation, his senses had become much sharper than before, especially his eyes and ears.
Before, he wouldn't have been able to make out such quiet voices behind him.
Now, he could pick up anything happening within ten meters.
"I use Dabao SOD Honey..." Li Xian turned around with a smile. After saying that, he headed straight for the office.
"He said he uses Dabao. Is that for real...?"
"Probably not..."
"Are you idiots? He's messing with you..."
The office was at the end of the hallway on the left. There was no reception desk or anything like that; you could just swipe your card to get in. The last room at the far end belonged to their telemarketing department, and the three or four offices on either side also belonged to their company.
Li Xian had witnessed Bainian Yucai's growth firsthand. In just two years, it had gone from twenty or thirty employees to more than a hundred, with seven or eight branches outside the city.
He was one of the company's veterans, yet he was still just a low-level salesperson in the telemarketing department.
This proved that not every receptionist at every company could get a share worth hundreds of millions.
More often than not, people couldn't even stick it out. In the end, they left without a word.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up. You're quitting, and you still dragged it out for two days?" Gao Ying was the first person he ran into as soon as he walked in.
The same familiar face, the same booming voice. Gao Ying was 173 centimeters tall, and with heels over five centimeters high, she really did make Li Xian feel a little pressured.
"Hehe. Morning, Sister Gao."
"You little brat... You look different. A little more handsome, a little taller." Gao Ying held a hand up to measure him.
Li Xian pointed at his shoes. "These add a few centimeters." Then he rubbed his face. "I've been sleeping well these past couple of days. My dark circles are gone."
"I knew it." Gao Ying looked at his shoes and muttered, "Those must add at least four or five centimeters."
Sister, what do you even pay attention to all day? You even know exactly how tall I am.
Li Xian was speechless, but he couldn't show it.
Sister Gao had a fiery temper. He couldn't argue with her. If he got on her bad side, he'd be the one to suffer.
Honestly, Li Xian thought it was a shame about Sister Gao. She had the height and the figure, but a face marked with acne scars held her back.
If she got some work done at a plastic surgery clinic and had the corners of her eyes reshaped, her looks would easily be a ten.
"What are you staring at?"
"You'd be a ten. Uh, never mind." Li Xian sighed and mumbled something vague.
Just then, Li Xian's team leader, Guan Yuhan, walked over. Her usually cool face wore a rare smile, though there was something teasing about it.
"Team Leader." Li Xian greeted her.
"Li Xian, should I be calling you Kidney Bro now?" Guan Yuhan asked with a teasing smile.
"Huh?" Li Xian was confused.
A head suddenly popped out from the work area behind them. "Kidney Bro, you're famous! Come here. Come on, give me ten plates of kidneys!"
What was going on?
Li Xian was completely baffled. He looked at Sister Gao, who shrugged, then at Guan Yuhan. She nodded toward the work area. "Go ask Zhang Cheng."
"Hahahaha! Kidney Bro!"
"That video of yours was hilarious. Who made it?"
"Oh my god, I'm dying! Li Xian, you're too funny!"
"."
Everyone in the work area greeted him with a grin. He'd never gotten this kind of reception before.
Li Xian was more and more confused. He walked up behind Zhang Cheng and slapped him on the shoulder. "What's going on?"
"Brother Xian, let me say this first: this has nothing to do with me." Zhang Cheng flashed him an ingratiating smile and raised his hands in surrender.
Under Li Xian's gaze, he logged into Bilibili and opened the trending videos section, then clicked on a five-minute video.
"Come on, come on, ten plates, gi-gi-give me. Give me kidneys, te-ten plates. Kid-kid-kidneys!"
It was an extremely ridiculous meme video. The chubby, handsome guy on screen reached out asking for kidneys, with footage of him munching on them, too.
That chubby, handsome guy was Li Xian himself.
Li Xian's face darkened, and his cheeks swelled up as if they were about to explode.
"Brother Xian, don't get worked up."
"Fuck! Who uploaded this video?" Li Xian swore outright.
Zhang Cheng shuddered and immediately pointed it out to him. "This guy here. His name's Squirrel Can't Beat Hamster."
"Son of a bitch!" Li Xian gritted his teeth, eyes blazing. Suddenly, a "ding" sounded in his head.
[Random Quest: I'm Kidney Bro!]
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